Isnt it interesting that it is the person …

Isnt it interesting that it is the person NOT paid by the community who takes as important the result of actions on the community. Unlike the servant paid by the community’s taxes who manages to ignore, indeed snivel at, the needs of the community and its children.

Recent comments by Gerry Fisher

Managed protest at Pacific Quay shames pro-indy campaignLynda – you write “it became progressively clear that principle had been discarded …” Now that is an opinion which might just demand some evidence to sustain it. Except to the degree that one might find it impossible to follow any principles over 40 years and not find the touch of deviation. Unfortunately it is the case that the voters, by and large, are not as interested in matters of constitutional principle as they might (should?) be and demand a manifesto filled with predictive “facts” or claims. I find it risible that BT leaders like Darling demand certainty from Yes on the future economy of this country – when He and the wee Broon, both patently incompetent as economists, couldn’t produce any such certainty over 13 years – but the voters will demand certainty so the Fear factor is brought out to play. As for false prospecti, did you ever examine closely any manifesto from Tory or Labour, at least after the 1945 election?

Oban SNP horrified as local MSP sets up event competing with next week’s by-electionLucy – care to offer odds? And what limit would you put on the bet? Or wouldn’t you? You have a vote in Ward 5? I ask, because your position is not known to me – and like most of the others who “comment” here, you choose to do so anonymously. While the ballot is secret, and must remain so, I am not sure that those who comment adversarily or criticise a political point of view are due a reply if they choose to do so behind a curtain of secrecy.,

Gerry Fisher on Oban North and LornI personally am in favour of wind farms, subject to local consultation and gains for the local community. I worry about the extent to which capital will go to the wind, before it can go to the tide and wave, because of techmological dalays in the latter energy source. Yes – with Sandy Taylor – a condition of my being the SNP candidate. As for the jobs at Faslane, the STUC report settled the jobs question for me. If you ask whether I would agree to Trident replacement subject to a bribe to Argyll and Bute, my only answer is that the money does not/ would not pay for the about-turn on principle., which I believe is the view of the majoeity in A and B, as well as the rest of this nation.

Isnt it interesting that it is the person NOT paid by the community who takes as important the result of actions on the community. Unlike the servant paid by the community’s taxes who manages to ignore, indeed snivel at, the needs of the community and its children.

It’s quite sad really that the one organisation that should be developing our rural way of life seem’s hell-bent on destroying it. Making schools the hub of any community is such a commonsense approach that even this Council should of been able to see that. Last time I voted for the SNP I was 18 years old, May will be my second along with Argyll First.

A collaborative effort too – although my name is at the top of the submission, most of the clear thinking and hard work that went into this must be credited to ARSN individuals from every corner of Argyll.

Not long in from work, need to earn some money to pay the election expenses.My view is still the same as it was, why do you need a commission when it is blatantly obvious to anyone that the proposals put forward by the council and the so called education department were just lies.If the Education secretary had any backbone he would have destroyed them and any other council who came up with any garbage like this of his own back.We all appreciate how important the schools are in rural areas but you don,t need to be a genius to see what ones need to go if you work to proper guidelines.Bonawe is one case but sadly what happened to Achaleven is another ball game alltogether. So will the commission tell parents not to move their kids if the teaching is poor or if some parents dislike the headteacher.Surely that is what a top class education department is for and that should be our right and the right of every parent in the country.Local councillors were obviously not on the ball when the situation at Achaleven was left to fester and eventually close the school.So I disagree on the need of a commission when the evidence was so strong against what Sneedon and co. were trying to do, it should of been put to bed there and then by the Education Secratary instead of passing the buck. Sorry to keep the old pussy cat waiting but its nice to know someone was missing me. Power to the People.

Neil, however tedious it might be, and however much we’d like common sense to prevail, all these things are governed by the law. The law is not working well and part of the Commission’s remit is to look at that and find remedies.

Personally I dispute that schools need to go. What is it about rural dwellers that makes you think they should get nothing more than a crumbling road for their council tax?

“The law is not working well ” Doesn’t stop the SNP Mike Russell closing schools using the self-same law though does it Anne? Robslees, Hillhead, who is next …… Crazy – haven’t actually read the submission – far too many impotant things to be doing other than reading predicatble pap fromthe “usual suspects”* on here *Copywright by Mike Russell Anne – how did the SNP group vote on the Council budget (chortle, chortle) Didn’t support the ‘Son of Darkness’ Tricky Dicky did they???? Left their Leader floundering I hear

In my dreams Anne?? Well how come Big Robert and Isobel were deserted by the snp cannon-fodder when it came to the vote on the Council’s budget?? The budget as Newsie would say is the most impoortant document (you blethered on a bit about its importance yourself Anne) So how come the SNP apart form the Robert and Isobel voted with their arch-nemisis Dick Walsh? Or didn’t you know??????

For Anne. I class myself as an Argyll person and if you seriously think that Bonawe can survive your pal Russell might not be so gracious.What do you think of his latest bit of support for our education system.Please give us the reason the SNP. think this is the best thing for Hillhead. As for the silly remark about rural and town I like many others across Argyll have family who live out of town and I have grandchildren who attend a rural school so you can put that sad nonsense in the bin.

Neil – Ardchattan School in Bonawe currently has three pupils, and no-one would deny that it is at a low ebb. Likewise, Barcaldine school had only seven pupils at one point (I was one of them, so it’s longer ago than I would care to admit). Now Barcaldine has twenty-two, and has been more-or-less full for the last decade or so.

Why? Barcaldine has not undergone any major house-building programme, nor enjoyed any significant economic boost (the closure of the Alginate factory in the late 90s lost us our last major employer) since I was at school. There has simply been a kind of demographic renewal resulting in an increase in the school-age population.

As long as a community like Bonawe has a school, it has a reasonable chance of undergoing such a renewal in due course, but that becomes much less likely if the school closes. Seen from that perspective, what appears to be a short-term spike in the ‘cost per pupil’ of educating Bonawe’s children close to home is in fact an investment in the long term sustainability of that community.

Also, as is abundantly clear to anyone who has visited the school, it has close connections with the community and plays a very important part in the lives of everyone, from toddlers to the elderly – the more so because it is the only community facility they have. Allow it to survive now, and it will thrive again in the future.

Simon – I’m really looking forward to hearing your considered response to the ARSN submission. In the mean time, do you think you could lay off the SNP-bashing for just a little while? Even for those of us with no party allegiance, it’s really starting to get tedious and I’m sure the last thing you want is to be boring everyone

The story also has nothing whatever to do with the SNP, nor even with the decision to close Hillhead school, which (I agree with you) looks pretty awful.

For Tim. I certainly know plenty about Bonawe school and the community , as I have said before I was the Mobile librarian for nearly twenty years.So I visited a good number of our rural schools regularly and have seen kids grow up and bring their own children to that same school. Bonawe will never be the same again sadly as parents with kids will want to stay nearer the main schools like lochnell,the journey to Bonawe even stops kids from the lochside going that way instead.It is never nice to see any school close but if the houses which are going up near bonawe have school age kids and the parents don,t back their local school what can you do.Plenty of children are transported out of their catchment area already for all kinds of reasons so unless parents want their school to survive what do you do.We have seen the negative side when the community of connel who not so long ago had a top class school were split for different reasons and the school suffered.Hopefully the talk of it being opened again will come true.I hope I am wrong with Bonawe but I would think the allocation of council houses to young families if they will take them when they become available will dictate the outcome.As for the money side I never mentioned anything about that.I took exception to the nonsense that because I live in the town I don,t care about the rural area.I think if you ask people who actually know me and why I loved my job working all over rural Argyll for twenty years you will get a truer picture. Power to the People.

Thanks Neil, and for what it’s worth I don’t doubt what you say about your understanding and empathy with rural areas. In fact I think we are lucky enough to live in a part of the world where splits of the type sometimes alluded to – between ‘urban’ and ‘rural’, or between young people & the elderly – are largely fictitious. None of the towns we have in Argyll are large enough to be described as ‘urban’ and many or most local families have strong connections between the town areas and the countryside.

As for Bonawe, I fully agree with you that, as with any school, it relies on parental support to survive. I would argue that the fact that the school is still open suggests that some parents do strongly support it, since they have obviously had to weigh any concerns they may have over the small size of the pupil roll against the desire to see the school survive for the sake of the longer term future of the community. Having attended the pre-consultation meeting in Ardchattan last March, I can assure you that the wider community, including many people in the village who do not have children, but are involved with the day to day life of the school, are strongly supportive of it. Furthermore the housing association representative expressed the view that the school was a significant factor in the large number of people on their waiting list who have expressed a preference for a house in the village.

Great to see that the interest from people on the waiting lists is positive for Bonawe.Hopefully that could swing the case for the school to continue and grow.But I hope the cuts to the bus service and any other negatives can be fought successfully so that the transport or potentially lack of it wouldn,t put anyone against moving out.As sadly one the council,s planning officers great quotes at a appeals meeting in the corran halls was that people who would move into community houses would not be able to afford a car so no need to include them in a traffic survey.That was for Ganavan but if that is the core of their thinking surely the bus service is paramount for Bonawe. Power to the People.

Crazy – as promised I read it. I’m not really suprised at anything that has been mentioned in the submissiomn and given that is from a self-interested group it was fairly neutral in tone, fairly well-argued however, it really was going over similar ground that we’ve seen rehearsed on these pages ad nauseum.

I’m not going to ooffer a point by point analysis or try to score points (though I did found some comments interesting – Councils should not be allowed to make financial savings – I though was simplistic and given the state of the economy pleading to be treated as a special case brings it own dangers – anyway I thought there were no savings to be made??)

In general I ‘m not sure that the tactic of trying to by-pass the eudcation authority and have the HMIs’ role enhanced will help protect rural schools. I would suggest you should be careful what you wish for. HMIs are better placed than any individual local authority to bring counter-arguments and evidence from across Scotland/UK and purely because they have no investment or involvement or constituency in Argyll and Bute they are pretty much immune to the type of demo that I saw you folks put on at Kilmory.

I know you want to hear this but I genuienly believe that if ARSN network put more of its efforts into meeting with and working the local authority rathe rthan trying to by-pass it – it would reap rewards.

The real difficulty is that at a time when every service is under scrutiny, under-resourced and being cut (in real terms) the majority of the population (ie those non ARSN people) I think (and I could be wrong) are much more intersted in social care issues, roads, libraries etc.

Finally, I’m not convinced that Mike Russell is the great saviour of rural schools that some think he is. Whilst he admitted the legislation was flawed and not working the way they wanted it didn’t stop him using the same legislation when he agreed to shut two schools. I know most of you welcomed him setting up the Commission – but don’t be surprised if he uses the opportunity afforded by the Commission to do to rural schools what he is doing presently to FE colleges.